The Perfect Lotus
by PsycheDiver
Summary: An epic fanfic chronicling the adventures of Rock Lee and his fellow ninjas of the Leaf. Follow Lee on his journey to become the best ninja he can, and protect those who are precious to him.
1. Chapter 1

Anime-Titan proudly presents:  
  
**_The Perfect Lotus_**   
  
**Chapter 1** – _Attack at the Outpost_  
  
Lee had no idea where he and his team were being led, or what was going to happen when they got there. Just a few short minutes ago Lee was being bombarded with gossip and random chit-chat by Tenten while trying to go though his morning calisthenics, when Neji ran towards them saying their team had orders to assemble for a mission. All three bolted to the village gates where Gai waited. Once they were all together Gai quickly motioned for them to follow him with a swing of his arm and took off into the forest beyond. Lee had never known Gai to be so close-lipped, which he attributed to nerves. Usually when they were about to start a mission Gai would go on and on about information regarding places they'd go and people they'd encounter, often going on tangents which Lee and Tenten fully enjoyed. What really got Lee worried about all this is that Gai only got nervous in the direst of situations. No ninja in their right mind liked going into any situation blind but if there was information that they needed to know they would have heard it already, after all part of the duty of a ninja is to understand the need for secrets.  
  
As they flew almost silently though the trees, Lee had a chance to recount the last few years of his life. He was nineteen years old now, and he, Neji and Tenten had grown into superb Chuunins, as well as fine people and good friends. Their abilities had already become near-famous across the land with acquaintances of the leaf, friends and enemies alike. Lee had always been proud to work with them. Gai had always been a great leader and wise teacher for Lee and the others, and even though he'd commanded them on many missions in the past, Gai's relationship with Lee as a mentor had always been stronger then the connection between commander and subordinate.  
  
They moved as fast as they could for what seemed like three or more hours before they suddenly stopped. Gai crouched on a high branch overlooking a small clearing. Lee and the others joined him on his perch as they peered in to survey the scene. They immediately noticed a stone structure in the middle of the clearing. The building wasn't very large and it seemed to resemble a bunker or tomb of some sort. Lee had only a few seconds to wonder what it could be before Gai snapped for attention.  
  
"Ok, I'll tell you what I can before we head in but this is all top-secret information and strictly on a need-to-know basis, understood?" Everyone sharply nodded. Gai continued. "Good. This bunker is a very precious secret dating back to before the birth of Konoha. Inside there is an important relic that must be guarded at all costs. Our opposition is a band of ninjas supposedly working for the Akatsuki. The two Anbu guards were overpowered but one managed to return to the village and report to us. Our mission is to retake the bunker by any means necessary. An Anbu squad will be here before long but one was not available when all this transpired, so we were sent here to retake the instillation and hold it until the Anbu arrive. Needless to say time is of the essence. We don't have any info about their numbers of strength. Lee, because of the severe nature of this mission I'll allow you to take off your weights, we need you at your best and this is not the time to hold back. Everyone be on your guard, Understood?" Everyone nodded again, this time with a bit of trepidation though, it's never easy going into a situation with this little information about who you'll be facing or what you'll find inside. Gai looked at them for a split second as if he'd just signed their death warrants. He let out a short sigh, "Good. Please be careful." Gai turned and primed to lead them into the fray when he remembered something of the utmost importance. He stopped them from leaving and got their attention once again, "One more thing, under no circumstances are you to touch the relic, it is exceedingly dangerous. Ok…let's go!"  
  
Lee quickly detached his weights. Over the years he's not only increased the weight but has also started wearing weights on the rest of his body. Needless to say this had amplified his performance exceptionally. He vigilantly removed the weights and placed them at the bottom of the trunk. Lee loved the sensation of taking off all that weight. He enjoyed the constant workout they provided but there was always a pleasant sense of power when it was all removed. He grinned faintly before leaping, soaring into the sky, though the canopy and landing on top of the mysterious bunker.  
  
The Bunker's exterior was very uninspired. It was made of tan brick and was square in shape. There were two levels, each holding one room and each had a walkway that ran around the entire structure. Every side of the structure had one entrance into the building, but there weren't any doors to speak of. There was a guard on the ground and the second level. Lee hid on the roof until he saw Neji take out the ground target, then Lee sprang on the guard he'd been observing, bringing his left heel down on his shoulder, knocking him out instantaneously. Lee signaled to the others that his target was out of the picture and that he was ready to enter the bunker. He jumped down to meet the others as they proceeded to enter the structure.  
  
The floor room was empty except for a metal hatch in the middle of the floor. Gai wasted no time in lifting the cover and motioning for his team to enter. They found themselves in a very narrow passageway that led down underground. The hall also twisted in many different directions. They walked swiftly but also took care not to run into any traps. They found disarmed traps along the way but oddly there was nothing set for them. Gai explained these were set by the Anbu guards and they must have been disarmed by the intruders. They had to be a good 50 stories underground before they got to the end of the hall. They entered a large triangular pyramid-like room. The room was about 50 meters from end to wall, there were many torches lining the walls as there were in the hallway so the room was well lit. There was nowhere in a room like this for someone to hide so an ambush wasn't likely at first glance, however they knew that the intruders were here somewhere so nobody was about to lower their guard. On the far end of the room in the corner was a heavy black steel door, which the team slowly made its way over to.  
  
Neji started performing hand seals and activated the Byakugan. He scanned the room gradually and noticed something abnormal. There seemed to be these four blurry transparent forms surrounding them. After approaching one of them he noticed the blur shifted slightly. Neji also noticed that the other blurs were slowly closing in on his team. Neji suddenly realized that these blurs were in fact the invading ninja they were sent to counter. Neji hopped into the middle of the room and yelled, "JUMP! Without hesitating the team minus Neji leaped into the air. The chamber they were in had a very high ceiling so they managed to get about 3 stories high when Neji began to spin at an amazing rate.  
  
"Eight Divinations Palm Heavenly Spin!" called out Neji. Immediately an enormous amount of wind and chakra poured out of Neji and formed a spinning sphere of white-blue destruction. The sphere grew in size and intensity until it burst, knocking the four blurs against the walls. When Lee and his team landed the only thing left standing was Neji in a slight crater he left at his feet. Neji gestured to the walls as the blurs shimmered and revealed four ninjas, all with the forehead protector of the hidden village of the Sound.  
  
"I see," said Gai softly to himself, "…so they must be Orochimaru's men. They must have been using a new kind of ninjutsu, one that cloaks the user and makes them clear as crystal. Everyone attack!"  
  
Lee, Neji, Tenten and Gai each chose a target and sprang on them.  
  
Lee's foe was making a break for the far door but he was halted after narrowly dodging a flying kick by Lee. After a few exchanges Lee noticed his adversary was formidable in hand-to-hand combat, this was definitely a chuunin, or perhaps even a jounin, maybe even their leader. Even without his weights in direct combat this ninja could just about match Lee's speed. Lee leaped onto the walls dodging a flurry of shuriken before jumping off and redirecting straight towards his opponent. Lee decided to take him out in one hit and dashed right at him, staying incredibly low to avoid conventional defences. His mysterious foe grabbed a small round ball from his belt and threw it at Lee. Lee was traveling much too fast to avoid the object and collided with it face-first. The object burst open and let out pitch black soot that blinded Lee for a moment. Lee staggered and heard his opponent run towards the far door. He grabbed a small bottle of water he had in his pouch and splashed it in his eyes, attempting to clear his vision so he could pursue. The water didn't do much but eventually Lee was able to clear away the black agent, but not before his opponent closed and locked the heavy black metal door behind him.  
  
"Lee!" Gai called out, still in the heat of battle with his opponent, "Go after him. He's going for the relic. You have to stop him!" Lee realized that to defeat him he'd have to do something a bit extreme. Lee closed his eyes and focused, willing the initial inner celestial gate open. Over the years he had trained to the point where opening the first three or four gates wasn't harmful compared to what it used to have been for him, but in any case it wasn't wise to waste time in this situation. Gai saw Lee disappear and a fraction of an instant later the door on the far end of the room was ripped off its hinges and thrown aside.  
  
Gai, Neji and Tenten had their hands full for the most part. These were unquestionably powerful foes they were taking on, they had to be tough to defeat the previous Anbu guard. While Neji used his Jyuken skills to professionally disable his opponent's chakra holes, he was also doing extensive damage to his internal organs and inner coils system. With only what looked like the slightest contact Neji sent his target reeling in pain, spewing his own blood from his mouth and other wounds. Gai was fairing equally well. His vigour and swiftness were immensely advanced to his opponent's. Gai and Neji had both their enemies locked in a defensive stance, all they needed to do is finish them off.  
  
Tenten wasn't fairing as well. Tenten's skill with weapons seemed to be enough to create a deadlock with her opponent. The huge Sound ninja she was facing was also a weapons user however, and had an obvious advantage in upper body strength. While Tenten's speed was keeping him at bay, she needed a way to best him hastily, one false step and she'd be right under the might of his giant lustrous combat axe. Tenten knew what she had to do. She began to dart around with a purpose other then just avoidance. She needed to put some distance between them. After a few minutes of dashing and weaving around she managed to place him in the center of the room.  
  
"Now!" she thought to herself, She jumped back in the direction of the wall, while in midair she tossed what weapons she had left on her to keep him in that spot. This was only going to work once, it had to, or else she'd be finished. As she landed she quickly removed two scrolls from her side and positioned them beside her as she crouched. The small scrolls stood there on their ends as Tenten vanished. As the Sound ninja stood there on his guard, axe held at the ready, the scrolls unravelled as if by an invisible hand, they started to burn with an aquamarine flame and then shot into the air spiralling around each other, trailing the unravelled paper behind them. The Sound ninja could have sworn that they looked like two dragons in some kind of grand clash as they rose into the air. They hovered there rotating in a double-helix until Tenten reappeared suspended amid the scrolls. The Sound ninja watched as her hands lightly traced the scrolls and out of oblivion appeared bladed weaponry of all kinds.  
  
"Experience the ferocity of my Twin Rising Dragons!" Tenten called out to her target as she began throwing an unremitting torrent of her mysterious bladed tools of fatality. The pace at which she launched them proved to be too fast for the sound ninja to fully circumvent or counter. He began to suffer wounds all over his bulk, some just minor cuts but others were deep gashes, and the more Tenten threw at him the more damage was inflicted and the more the sound ninja tired. Then as unexpectedly as the onslaught started, it ended. All Tenten's arms were laying on the ground behind the Sound ninja, save a few that were stuck in the ninja himself. The weary Sound ninja was just about to start his counter-strike when he noticed something strange, Tenten was still suspended in midair with her scrolls, and her hands were outstretched towards him.  
  
Tenten chuckled a bit, "Sorry, but this is the part where you die." The sound ninja only had a second to ponder her words before he heard something shift behind him. All the weapons that had missed him were no longer lying on the floor or embedded in it, rather they were suspended a few inches above the ground pointed at him! Before the ninja could speak a word or even turn around, Tenten pulled her extended hands in and sent all those dozens of shimmering blades into the sound ninja's back, literally tearing him apart.  
  
As soon as Tenten's scrolls wound up and she had landed, she noticed Neji and Gai had already finished their opponents off and were dragging what was left of them into the corner. Tenten looked around for Lee but couldn't find him. Before she had a chance to ask she saw Gai and Neji running towards the door.  
  
"Lee went after the last sound ninja, he was headed for the relic! We have to hurry, Lee could be in grave danger!" Gai called out. They all dashed through the door Lee had torn off and moved down a long passage. All they could think about was getting there in time to help Lee. When they were still a new genin team, Lee was still to some extent weak, so during that time Gai and Tenten developed an uneasy feeling when they knew Lee was in extraordinarily perilous circumstances. They all knew how strong Lee was now, but that same uneasy sense seemed to pop up every so often on missions like this. The longer they realized the tunnel was, the more disconcerted they got.  
  
Lee moved as fast as he could down the corridor. He could see a kaleidoscope of light, hums and chime sounds coming from the end of the hall, Lee knew that his adversary was already there. When Lee reached the end he couldn't help but stop and be awe-struck. Before him was a dome-shaped chamber about half the size of the triangle room, and this time instead of just brick and torches the dome seemed to have been moulded out of terracotta. What astonished Lee was that all around danced what seemed to be symbols and seals, all humming and chiming, glowing an incredibly brilliant rainbow of colours. The only thing illuminating the room were the symbols themselves. The glowing pseudo-calligraphy danced on the walls, the floor and even in midair in some kind of lovely and intricate ballet. Lee would have cherished a chance to just watch the show for a few hours but he knew he had more pressing concerns. In the middle of the floor was a pedestal that that looked like it grew out of the floor itself. On it was a very large scroll. There was no uncertainty in Lee's mind that this was the relic his squad was here to protect. The scroll was luminescent with the same light and symbols that were flooding the chamber, and next to the scroll was the Lee's foe, about to lay a hand on the scroll.  
  
Before Lee could call out a rupture of energy came out of the scroll and threw the ninja against the wall hard. Lee recognized the energy as resembling the Chidori used by Kakashi and Sasuke, yet it acted more like a pulse or shockwave. Perhaps it was some kind of security device. Now Lee understood why they were told not to touch it. Lee watched as the Sound ninja slowly got up and walked again towards the scroll. Lee dashed into the chamber, putting himself between the ninja and the scroll, his hand already extended in the direction of his opponent.  
  
"Stop right there. You're not laying one more finger on this scroll. This is Konoha property and you're not welcome here. Go back to wherever it is you came from and tell whoever sent you that The Azure beast of Konoha ruined your plans." Lee couldn't help but grin, but he was already starting to feel his body complain from the open gate, he had to finish this off quick and go help the others if he could.  
  
The Sound ninja looked bemused and snickered. "Konoha property? You're joking right? You don't know anything about what this scroll is do you. Well I shouldn't be surprised that they wouldn't tell you leaf drones anything. Doesn't matter I suppose, you know you can't defeat me."  
  
Lee was happy to see that over-confidant face on his adversary, it meant that he had no idea that Lee had amplified his fighting abilities so radically since they last met, that element of surprise could be what Lee really needed. Lee let his hands fall to his sides, he let it seem as if his body was relaxed and that he was giving up in some sense of hopelessness, it would help to catch his target off-guard. Suddenly Lee vanished and reappeared directly behind the trespasser. Lee watched him turn around and saw the look of shock on his face when Lee performed a somersault kick, sending him flying 20 feet.  
  
Lee landed and got into his signature fighting stance, ready to spring again. "I bet that hurt…" Lee said tauntingly and the Sound ninja struggled to shake off the stun and get up. Before he could regain his footing Lee charged at him once again, this time planning on catching him in a lotus-type chain of attacks and finishing him off, however that's not what the sound ninja had in mind. Lee didn't have a lot of room to manoeuvre and the Sound ninja knew this. He predicted Lee would come straight at him and throw a punch, so when Lee did just that he was ready, he managed to clutch Lee's wrist and put him into a shoulder throw. Lee's speed combined with the sound ninja's strength was all the force needed to send Lee flying at an incredible velocity directly into the scroll.  
  
The last thing the Sound ninja ever saw was Lee disappearing into a blinding aura of light, energy, pain, power and screams.  
  
-----------------------------------  
  
©2004 Giancarlo Paniccia (PsycheDiver). All rights reserved.  
  
http:anime-titan.avalon-city.com  
  
Please do not use any of the material herein without the author's explicit written consent. Do not alter anything in this file. I've put alot of time, thought and energy into creating something people can enjoy so please don't mess around with it.  
  
The characters, names, places, etc... within are the products of the fine people responsible for the Naruto series and I'm only borrowing them for fan use.  
  
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	2. Chapter 2

Anime-Titan proudly presents:  
  
_**The Perfect Lotus**_   
  
**Chapter 2** - _…and so everything changed.  
_  
Pain, overwhelming pain assaulted Lee's every sense. From Lee's point of view whatever the scroll was trying to, it was destroying his body, his mind and even his very soul. He could scarcely tell that his body was being held up outstretched in midair by the scroll, as if he were on a torture rack. All his senses were being besieged. Lee had images, sounds, smells, even tastes and touch being fed into him at such a high rate and at such high volume that it was beginning to drive him insane. Lee couldn't fight back, he just wanted it all to stop, before he got washed away in a torrent of sensory information.  
  
Gai, Neji and Tenten finally arrived in the glowing dome room, and what they saw made their jaws drop and their blood run cold. On the floor laid a pile of black ash surrounded by the arm guards and forehead protector of the Sound ninja that Lee had pursued. At the center of the room was a glowing white hot ball of radiance, inside of which Lee was suspended, eagled over a large glowing scroll on a pedestal. The scroll itself was hovering slightly, inside the same sun-like orb of energy that held Lee. Tenten and the others called out to Lee but their voices were completely drowned out by the screaming energies that filled the room, and they couldn't advance because the intense heat and light were too much to tolerate even by the entrance several meters away. All they could do is watch Lee's torment and hope he would come out of it alive.  
  
Lee struggled to hold on to his sanity. Every sense he had was being overloaded and he didn't know how much longer he could last. He tried to think of a course of action that might put an end to this nightmare. Lee decided if he couldn't force the images and sounds away, then maybe trying to make sense of them would end it quicker. The sounds were too garbled and the smells, tastes and touches seemed too unfamiliar, so Lee concentrated on the images. He could see many things but none of them were in focus and they were moving so fast that it was an enormous strain just to watch them, but the more he concentrated the more the sensory information deciphered and little by little the pain faded.  
  
Neji could scarcely approach the small sun in the center of the odd room, but thanks to his Byakugan he could see more then the others could. The room was flooded with chakra, as if every bit of stone on the wall and every molecule of air were generating colossal amounts of the spirit energy. All that power was surging into the scroll like matter surges towards a black hole, and the scroll itself was somehow altering the energy and feeding it though billions of threads into Lee. Neji could see the energy tendrils inside every part of Lee's inner coils system, the pathways overflowed with power and seemed to be close to the breaching point. Neji couldn't envision what Lee was going though at that moment, the strain on one's body and mind would have been much too violent and vicious for any normal man, perhaps even a kage.  
  
Lee could feel himself continue to slip. Even if he concentrated on the imagery and sensations as much as he possibly could he was still being overwhelmed. He had lost any sense of the outside world, or even how long he'd been going though this. It felt like this torture was lasting an eternity. No, this wasn't torture, it was something else, and something Lee couldn't yet comprehend. Whoever or whatever was responsible for this didn't have the intention of doing him harm, somehow he knew this. All Lee could do is try, after all, that's what he's known for, and that's why he was known as the genius of hard work. Lee refocused all his faculties once again on the images, sounds and other sensations being force-fed to him, try to decrypt the message or meaning behind this all before it was too late.  
  
Gai and the others were getting desperate. Neji relayed what he was seeing through his Byakugan and it only made Gai and Tenten feel even more lost. They had no idea where all this chakra was coming from and no way of stopping any of it. The light and heat were so terribly intense that none of them save for Neji could even see Lee at all, let alone get close enough to pull him out.  
  
"None of us are fast enough to get in and free Lee before we were incinerated, assuming we could even penetrate that barrier at all," Said Gai, brainstorming out loud. "So what we need is a way to stop all this chakra from feeding the scroll. Tenten, perhaps you could…what are you doing?"  
  
Tenten was kneeling down in a meditative stance with a kunai held outwards tightly to her chest and her eyes closed. "None of us can help Lee right now, so all we can do is pray for him, give him our strength." It took a lot of willpower for Tenten to keep herself from crying. She wanted so badly to help Lee in any way she could but she knew that it was impossible. Gai and Neji looked at each other, both with a sense of hopelessness in their eyes. They too knelt alongside Tenten and prayed for Lee, trying to convey what strength they could to him. They knew Lee was strong, and they knew that he would never give up even after his last breath, he'd shown that on every occasion, however that didn't negate the fact that Lee had never been in as much trouble as he was now, not since his first fight with Gaara of the Desert, and there was nothing they could do to help their precious comrade.  
  
Lee was getting weak. He could fell the endless violent flow of energies eat away at his reserves of strength. Lee wasn't fighting it back anymore but it was still so much for him to bear. The pain wasn't the issue anymore, for that had mostly disappeared, probably because he'd slipped into a coma-like paralysis, but the ceaseless feed of information and raw power was still tearing his mind, body and soul apart, and no matter how much he concentrated on it he couldn't make heads or tails of anything, nor could he slow it down so his mind would have a chance for examination. Was this his end? Was Lee going to be done in by some ancient power for no comprehensible reason? There were still so many things he wanted to do and achieve, so many things he wanted to say. There were still people he wanted to protect, precious people who meant worlds to him. He wanted to do more then shield them though. He wanted to tell all his precious people how truly dear they were to him, he wanted to pour his heart out to every single one of them. Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, Hinata, Shino, Kiba, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi, Tsunade, Gai, Neji, Tenten…His mind stopped for a second when he thought of Tenten. He had always felt something more towards her, yet he was never sure if it was just comradeship or something else. Lee wished he could explore life more, he was still young and had a very promising future ahead of him.  
  
Lee's life was slipping away, he could no longer concentrate on the sensations, and he could no longer keep himself afloat on this raging ocean of power. He could feel himself submerge. He'd given it his all, there was nothing to not be proud of when it came to his effort, however it wasn't enough in this case.  
  
The vortex of energy that encapsulated Lee began to drain in towards him, as if the source of the mysterious and immeasurable power was finally drying up. The brilliance that kept the others at bay started to quake and become violent. It was as if they were witnessing the small star going supernova. The ball of fury roared and pulsed, blasting off waves of its energy. When the commotion began Tenten and the others rose to their feet, Neji could no longer view the inside of the storm that held Lee in its clutches, even his Byakugan was blinded by the power and light given off by the forces at work. Suddenly it became clear that the micro-star was going to explode, perhaps taking the entire instillation with it. Gai and the others turned to run but it was too late, the ball detonated, sending them into the wall, stunned and moderately singed.  
  
Gai, Neji and Tenten, woke up to find the walls charred, wisps of smoke trailing from little fires ignited when the ball which once contained Lee and the relic scroll exploded. Now the scroll once again rested on its pedestal while glowing and humming softly, as if echoing the energies that once surged through it. Lee lay on the floor, just in front of the pedestal. Lee's clothes, like everything else, were burned and in tatters. Lee had many cuts and holes all over his body. Blood slowly ran from his mouth, nose, ears and eyes. Tenten was the first to begin running over to Lee, calling out to him with tears flying from her eyes. Gai and Neji snapped out of their stunned state and started running over to Lee when they saw his body begin to move.  
  
Lee felt as if his life was literally hanging on by a thread. It astonished him that he wasn't dead. He commanded his body to get up but he didn't have the strength. All he could do is open his eyes to see Tenten, Gai and Neji running towards him as fast as they could. Gai and Tenten had odd faces on, as if they were worried and relieved at the same time, even Neji showed some emotion. Lee smiled on the inside.  
  
"Thank goodness," Lee thought to himself, "now I'll get another chance to do what I needed to do. Now I'll get the chance to keep protecting those precious to me, and tell those people how precious to me they really are."  
  
…and then, darkness. 


	3. Chapter 3

Anime-Titan proudly presents:  
  
The Perfect Lotus   
  
Chapter 3 – Your Destiny, if you choose to accept it.  
  
Lee felt a cool gentle breeze on parts of his face. He slowly opened his eyes to see the ceiling of a hospital room. A gentle wind was coming from an open window overlooking a garden. Lee attempted to sit up but was thrown back down when his senses started playing havoc with his equilibrium. Every part of him was still in shock from that episode with the relic, not surprising really when you consider that he almost didn't live to tell the tale. There were however a few things anomalous with this picture. First the clock on the nightstand beside his bed on the right showed that he had been sound asleep for ten days, which astounded Lee he'd never been a heavy sleeper or ever one to sleep-in. What didn't surprise him was the fact that he was almost completely covered with bandages; however that wasn't the only odd thing that surrounded him. There were solid steel braces holding his arms and legs to the bed that was bolted to the floor. The bed itself was much more solid and heavy then any hospital bed Lee had ever seen. Someone didn't want Lee to move an inch. There was also an Anbu guard outside his window to the left, perched on his windowpane, and he assumed there were more outside the door. Lee could scarcely keep his eyes open because of the fatigue, as well as the aftershocks of his experience.  
  
Lee wanted to know what was going on but he could barely move say a word, much less call for assistance. Lee did notice that the Anbu crouched on his windowpane was now looking right at him. Lee tried to meet eyes with the dog-masked figure but couldn't stand the sunlight coming through the window. The Anbu climbed into the room and picked up the phone on the nightstand.  
  
"Yes, he's awake. Let them know right away." The Anbu said coolly and with a hint of importance in his voice. He put the receiver down and then went back to the window to resume his post. Before he climbed out the Anbu turned to Lee and said softly, "You should go back to sleep. You're safe…for now." Then perched himself right back into the spot he was in, looking outwards as if expecting an attack. Lee certainly didn't feel safe at all, especially with all this extra security and that cryptic phone-call a moment ago. Still, it was a definite strain to even stay conscious at this point, so reluctantly Lee took the Anbu's advice and went back to sleep.  
  
Lee wasn't the type to practice lucid or controlled dreaming, in fact it was rare that he remembered any dreams at all, however Lee was sure this dream was out of the ordinary. Lee knew he was sleeping but didn't feel any less conscious. He had heard of people who could control their dreams and he always envied them for that ability, but he never thought he'd have the opportunity to control his dreams as they did. However, even though he was conscious, he couldn't will anything to happen. He was in what looked like a large forest clearing, it was noon and the sun was strangely radiant, unobstructed by any clouds. In the middle of the clearing was a large round bed. A bed being in the middle of the forest was strange enough for Lee, but what really interested him was the design of the bed. It was suspended at least 3 feet off the ground, and it hovered in midair silently and motionless. It had five posts set in the corners of a pentagram, and each post seemed to be engraved with seals and other symbols. As Lee got close enough to clearly see the engraving, he slowly recognized the symbols as the same that adorned the dome room that held the relic scroll. Lee at that moment wanted nothing more then to get away from that bed, but found he had nowhere to go. The forest and sky had vanished and left only a stone walkway that lead to bed. Beyond was nothing but an endless black abyss, save for the sun, which seemed to be getting brighter by the second.  
  
"What is going on here?" thought Lee, "Am I having a nightmare? The only thing I can do is either jump off into that space below or get on that bed, but if those runes are the same as those that I saw in the relic room, something terrible might happen again." The experience that he had when he came into contact with that relic scroll was still very fresh, vivid and raw in his mind. Lee wanted to wake up but had given up on trying to control this dream, and if this level of fear coursing through him wasn't going to wake him up then nothing he could do would. Finally Lee resigned to the inevitable. "Well if I gotta lye on that bed then I will, just hope I don't live to regret it. Actually, I hope I live, period."  
  
Lee walked at a snail's pace to the bed only a few steps away and cautiously mounted it. A sense of overwhelming comfort and calm washed over him. His body couldn't help but flop down onto the utterly blissful surface and enjoy. It was as close to rapture as Lee had been since he was in his mother's womb. In fact, that's what he was reminded of when he caressed the warm softness of the sheets. Lee's body instinctively moved into the most comfortable position it could find, which just happened to be spread out with a limb and his head at each of the five posts. The posts pulsed and sent shimmering waves of light over Lee. Lee should have been terrified but whatever this was felt way too good to ignore or resist. It wasn't just the bed anymore either, the waves seemed to caress and invigorate every cell in his body. Lee's eyes locked on the sun before him, which was very bright but not blinding or painful to look at. He felt like a moth being drawn to a flame, lured to the light for no reason that he could comprehend. The more Lee peered into the light the more the sensations that were fed into him by the relic resurfaced. This time however they didn't flood in, it was more controlled, as if finally he was being given the chance to analyze what he was seeing and hearing. He saw an extremely blurry image of a figure moving. Lee hazarded a guess that it was a ninja performing a kata of some sort. Lee could make out faintly striking motions but couldn't see a target.  
  
Lee also heard something, something coming from the void, a voice perhaps? Yes, it was calling out to Lee. Before Lee could respond to it the light faded out and everything went dark. When he opened his eyes he was back in the hospital. It was now getting close to dusk and along with the Anbu guards at the window and door, over his bed stood a doctor, nurse, Gai and Tsunade. The Hokage stood closest to him on his right side, while the doctor and Nurse stood on his left. Gai was at the foot of the bed intensely looking over Lee's charts trying to make some sense of them, probably to ease some of the anxiety that he always felt when Lee was in intensive. Tsunade motioned for the doctor and nurse to leave. On her way out the nurse yanked the charts out of Gai's hands and placed them back in the holder. Before Gai could respond she started waving her finger in front of his face as if he were a young boy who got caught stealing a cookie from the cookie jar. Lee muffled his giggle as much as he could, and he noticed Tsunade was as well. When the doctor and nurse were gone and the door was locked, Gai moved to where the doctor has last stood, on Lee's left. If Lee's vision wasn't still blurry, he would have been very worried due to the faces that Gai and Tsunade were wearing. There was an odd look of concern on their faces, not completely because of what happened to Lee or for his current physical condition, but for something they knew would come.  
  
"How do you feel? You had us pretty worried for a while there." Said Gai, his voice slightly betraying the fact that there was something more to this conversation then just a check-up.  
  
"I feel pretty banged up. I didn't even feel this lousy after my fight with Gaara." Lee said with a snicker, trying to lighten the mood. "Am I going to recover on my own this time or will there be another life-threatening operation involved?" Lee mused, trying to weed out the reason why Tsunade was there. He guessed it was to debrief him from their latest mission, but he wasn't sure.  
  
Tsunade chimed in. "You'll be fine. The docs say you'll make a full recovery. In fact, they say you're rapid rate of recovery is pretty extraordinary. That's part of the reason we need to talk. You see for someone who has just gone through the experience you just did, it's amazing you're alive, much less recovering at all. That scroll has killed Anbu before that only grazed its surface for an instant."  
  
Lee needed a few things answered. "May I ask why I'm shackled and why I'm under Anbu guard?"  
  
Gai stepped in to answer this one. "Both are for your protection I assure you."  
  
Lee was getting more worried by the second, and he decided to get a bit brazen. "Alright, I want to know exactly what happened to me, I think I need to know some of that need-to-know information."  
  
Lee expected to be rejected and told nothing, and perhaps a bit scorned, but the look on Tsunade's face changed. She no-longer wore the face of a strict Hokage that was just doing her duty, she now wore the face of a person who understood exactly what Lee was feeling, and damned be the rules if they didn't permit a little piece of mind for this brave soul.  
  
Tsunade grabbed a chair from the wall, placed it beside Lee's bed and flopped down in it with a sigh. "Ok kiddo, you deserve to know everything we know, so here it is. That relic was the last remnant from an ancient ninja clan that used psionics as a means of performing ninja acts. They were masters of information, they communicated over long-distances in real-time and since the information they were trusted with was rarely physically recorded, they were invulnerable to any kind of deciphering. They were immune to coercion and almost all types of ninjustu, genjutsu and even taijustsu, since they supposedly viewed the world on a completely different plane then everyone else.  
  
Lee had to chime in before he got completely lost. "What exactly are psionics?"  
  
Tsunade paused a second to word her answer, "They're the abilities that include mind-over-matter and telepathy. These ninjas used their chakra to at times purely dominate the minds of others. There are only a few advanced jutsus today, like The Sharingan's moon reader and light of the heavens, or the mind body disturbance skill that come close to the power they constantly wielded. They also used their abilities to drastically enhance their bodies, in fact it is rumoured that they perfected a single taijutsu style that perfectly fused both gouken and jyuken arts."  
  
Lee's ears perked at that statement. Lee had always fantasized about having such power. It really made his mind flood with possibilities. Instead of jumping in and asking about those rumours specifically, Lee let Tsunade continue.  
  
"Nobody really knows what happened to them, it's relatively understood that they controlled what we call the country of Fire when they were around, but without warning they disappeared and the only thing left of them are some vague stories from really old ninjas, and that bunker you were sent to retake. We suspect that that scroll holds all their knowledge and techniques, not written, but psionically imprinted on it and in the energies permeating that room. We've tried everything to get at it but until you ran into it nobody had ever been able to even touch it without suffering massive injuries…or worse. In fact that's what happened to that Sound ninja you pursued."  
  
Lee suddenly felt a lot luckier then he already did. If Anbu-level ninjas couldn't survive what he did, his experience must have been one in a million. Lee had to try to figure this all out. "If Anbu had tried and failed, why am I still alive?"  
  
Tsunade and Gai glanced at each other for a second before she answered, "Well, we suspect it has something to do with the fact that you had opened one of the inner celestial gates. Rumour has it that the key to the psionic ninjas' physical enhancement was based on secrets about the inner gates and inner coils system. Jutsu theorists have speculated that these systems hold powers that are far beyond what we can put into practice presently. Supposedly each of the gates could hold gifts that are at or above the level that we put advanced bloodline traits and other such legendary feats into."  
  
Lee was having a hard time grasping all this. It was difficult to imagine a power like the kind that these psionics must have had. He thought he knew everything there was to know about the inner celestial gates. What really eluded him however was what he would do now, he had to ask. "So what does this all mean for me? I didn't learn anything from being in contact with that scroll and it's still there in that bunker so why not continue your research?"  
  
Tsunade sighed. She knew why he was getting a bit antsy. "Well you see, after your incident the scroll's power seems to have disappeared. Now it's only a large scroll with nothing written in it, sitting in an empty room. We think whatever knowledge that the scroll had was transferred to you during your episode. What can you remember?"  
  
Lee told her about the overload of senses and the extreme pain during his contact with the relic. Gai also relayed to Lee what he, Tenten and Neji saw from the outside, which had already been reported to the Hokage. Tsunade seemed to be trying to put it all together, and after a few minutes of pacing as Lee and Gai spoke, she let them in on what she was conceiving. "It seems to me that I was right, all that information that the scroll and that room contained is now locked somewhere in your mind. The only problem is that we need you to piece it all together, if that's at all possible. What you were experiencing must have been some kind of massive information feed, but what that information is won't be known until you figure it all out.  
  
Lee was beginning to feel overwhelmed. "How can I do that when I can't remember any of it clearly?  
  
Tsunade thought about it for a few seconds, then snapped her fingers and said, "I don't think you're supposed to remember it, something like this would have to be designed to organize itself in some fashion. If not through the conscious mind, then it would have to be subconsciously through your dreams."  
  
Lee suddenly remembered that odd dream he was just having a little while ago. Could that be what Tsunade was talking about?  
  
"So what happens to him now?" asked Gai.  
  
"I'm going to put him on a training and meditation sabbatical until further notice. He'll be taken off the active agent list for now and we'll monitor his progress. Lee, you can use this time to train and meditate, but just do whatever you feel you need to in order to find the answers. Don't forcefully think about it, it'll all come to you. Let whatever has been stored in your mind move you whenever you feel it, ok?"  
  
Lee more-or-less understood the Hokage's reasoning, but he wasn't at all sure if this would yield the results she wanted. At the very least Lee was happy to have the time to devote himself purely to his training. Gai and Tsunade released Lee from his bindings, now content that he was no danger to himself. They both said farewell to Lee and left together, still conversing about the finer points of Tsunade's plan.  
  
As soon as they left Lee looked out the window and noticed they had been talking right into the night. The Anbu guard was still there but no longer perched on the windowpane. When the doctor and nurse left the Anbu guard must have noticed that the Hokage was requesting some privacy. Now he was on the rooftop. Lee tried to get back to sleep but found it difficult to relax. He sat up and looked into the single compartment in the nightstand. It held a clipboard with blank paper and a pen. Lee wondered about what the Hokage had said about letting his subconscious lead his actions in order to solve this puzzle and thought he might experiment. Lee had mediated before so it was relatively easy for him to put himself into some sort of trance. Lee grabbed the paper and pen. He closed his eyes and his breathing became steady and purposeful. The pen he had quivered over the paper for a few minutes and then sprang to life. Lee drew and drew at a frantic pace for hours, thought the now unconscious Lee had no idea what his subconscious was creating.  
  
The next morning Lee awoke to the sun hitting his face. "I must have fallen asleep while meditating." Lee mumbled to himself, still half-asleep. He suddenly remembered what he had been doing and found the pen, now with far less ink in it, and the pad on the floor beside the bed. Lee grabbed it and was shocked at what he'd drawn. With artistic skill that he never had before, Lee had drawn a complete blueprint of a large dojo. Just looking at the schematics Lee could easily see that this was the dojo of his dreams. It was perfectly designed for all his needs and built large enough and sturdy enough for him to really let loose.  
  
Lee decided then that the first thing he was going to do was build this dojo. 


End file.
